Like Petals
by Ebimeep
Summary: Our lives are like petals, floating in the winds - how can we direct or lead them? A series of small things written  mostly  about either Zutara or Zuko/Katara centric topics.
1. 1  10

**Like Petals - #1-10**

**Free**

She couldn't help but look for the bargains – that was where they met, her laughing at his expression as he trudged after the older man.

**Moving**

The first times she saw him move she had been infuriated. Later, it she watched with fascination. Now, it was like watching herself move – like a second body that she knew as well as her own.

**Glint**

The first thing that alerted them to the Fire Nation's presence was the shine of dark armor in the forest – the second, a shriek of rage and the knowledge that they didn't really need to do anything (after all, the _prince _was there and their sister and friend wouldn't let him touch a hair on their heads if it killed her, which it wouldn't because it always gave her so much energy).

**Mist**

It was because the area was shrouded in an impenetrable fog that he knew they were there: It wasn't often that there was a bender strong enough to coat the valley but they should have known he had been over the terrain a million times over and knew well enough that it misted here.

**Promise**

The very thought of what might happen if he changed his mind was enough to make him reconsider – but it wasn't strong enough, they weren't on the same side, after all, and what was worse than keeping promises to enemies was keeping promises to enemies that would make them far more like friends.

**Jasmine**

He spun around when he heard the cup shatter in the entrance way but the girl was already gone (but when he searched the sidewalk outside the teahouse there was no water stain around the broken teacup, just an airy perfume that quickly dissipated).

**Acceptance**

His heart had stopped when she showed him his room (icy blue eyes, so different from the way she looked at everyone else) but he had to admit that now it stopped for a different reason.

**Sakura**

Zuko had always loved the pale pink petals as they fell, past their peak: now, though, all he could think of was how striking they had looked on her dark hair and how he still couldn't make his memories be reality again.

**Follow**

She gave a tiny beckon with a twist of the end of her braid around the side of the building and he didn't know why his body kept going forward when his mind called for him to turn down the alley.

* * *

**A/N**: Does A:tLA belong to me? Is the sky hot pink?

So, some drabbles. I think that's what they're called. If anyone can clear that up for me, it'd be great. 3


	2. Cat Nap drabble

**Like Petals - Cat Nap**

She was tired. That much was clear to her, even as she blinked the slight grit away from blue eyes. A yawn, a stretch, and then she glanced up at the sky and realized what time it must be.

The edge of the blue sky was beginning to tinge pink, and the clouds were laced with gold. Any minute, now, the Aang and Sokka would come running back to camp with some sort of angry wild animal on their tails, and that would be it with the peace and quiet. So it would be better, now, to finish – start – at least get _moving _on making some sort of consumable dinner for the returning 'heroes' to munch on and not complain about. For, of course, Sokka would whine and groan and boss if something wasn't available to eat – 'Katara, can't a man get any food around here?' – and Aang would just look pitiful and mournful.

But she had sparred _all_ afternoon. It was the first time she had ever had a non- argumentory fight with that dumb firebender. He was good, that much she had to give him, and she wasn't sure who had eventually won. At any rate, Zuko had disappeared to take a bath and Katara just collapsed on the ground to nap.

Now, as she stared up at the sky, she dimly realized that dinner _had _to be made. She stretched again, rubbed her eyes and sat up, only to find –

Well, well. The firebender could _cook_, too.

* * *

A/N: Again, A:tLA is not mine.


	3. South Pole

**Like Petals - South Pole**

_Katara, Sokka, Zuko_

The ice stretched on forever – cold, silent, blindingly bright – in the South Pole. Great chunks of glacier stood, suspended, above the water, their frosty tops split to reveal glittering, shadowy depths, struck through with veins of crystalline blue, sinking down into the serene ocean water.

A solitary canoe cut through the still waters, deftly dodging the sometimes-benign, sometimes-treacherous ice floes. Two figures perched inside the boat, the one, a boy, rowing with swift, decisive strokes, the other, a girl, staring down into the deep water that jumped up to form shapes at the twitch of her fingers. Once a while of traveling in that manner had passed, the canoe slowed to a bobbing stop in the water, and the boy stood up, placing down the oar as he did. After a quick stretch and a straightening of the blue parka, he rummaged underneath the seats, searching for the tools of his current trade. The fishing spear emerged and was rather ineptly tossed in to the water.

His movement and subsequent curses was enough to jolt the girl out of her dazed reverie and back in to the real world. A biting wind ruffled the fur lining her hood as she turned to look at the boy.

"Sokka, what in _La's _name are you doing?"

It was a question that held merit. The boy – Sokka – was attempting to retrieve the spear from the icy water before it sank. This endeavor included much flailing of arms, soaking of parka, and tipping of boat.

"_Sokka_! You're going to tip the canoe! Stop!"

"Please, Katara," Sokka said, snorting in the effort of reaching for the elusive fishing implement. "This plan is thoroughly thought-through and completely sound. I wouldn't expect a girl like you to understand, but couldn't you at least try a _little_?"

Sokka slowly stopped moving as he realized what he had said. A slow, impenetrable silence fell over the canoe. The air seemed to stiffen and thicken as Katara drew herself up to her full height (not tall, but the effect was decent) and glared down her nose at her brother. The previously soft, round, blue eyes turned deadly hard as Sokka shrank down in his parka.

"Now, sis…let's be reasonable-"

The Watertribe boy's voice had jumped up a few octaves from his previous sarcastic tone, and it proceeded to crack on the last syllable. Sokka's fourteen-year old sister might not have been the most impressive person at first glance, but the diminutive waterbender could pack quite the punch when she wished to. And the glare – oh, the glare that could crack glaciers…

Katara cut Sokka off, her voice deadly calm. "What…was that you said?"

"Um…the plan is good?"

"After that."

"Eheh…"

A blank stare met his pleading gestures.

"Come on, Katara, you know I didn't mean anything by it…"

She slowly crossed her arms.

"It's not like I said anything about it being woman's work, like last time-!"

Fists clenched, jaw tightened.

"Hey, Katara, calm down…you don't want anything to get out of control…"

A red tinge flushed over her previously soft brown face. Her very hairs seemed to crackle with fury.

"Stop it! We're fine! And, hey, you know what they say about waterbenders getting irritated during their-"

That was the last straw. Katara snapped.

"Sokka, shut up! How dare you say such things?" She fumed, and the water around the boat began to ripple. "You're such a sexist pig! I take care of you and dad and I mend all your clothing and cook all your meals and you have the _nerve_ to say I don't understand a good plan because – why, because _I'm a girl? _Oh, let me tell you what I think about this –"

As she ranted on, Sokka's eyes fell on a large bubbling patch of water behind them.

"Uh…Katara?"

"_Don't interrupt me!"_

"Okay!"

She continued with her spew about Sokka's uncooperating and disgraceful acts. The sexist pig in question was currently getting more and more agitated as an iceberg began to rise out of the water. "Katara, stop!"

A second later, a giant wave caused by Katara's broiling emotions and massive waterbending potential rolled over them. The canoe was swept around. The two teens screamed in terror. Freezing cold water splashed down their throats as they attempted to cry for help. Ice floes battered and bumped their chilled limbs as they were rushed to and fro, completely at the mercy of the giant wave and surfacing ice.

"Kataraaaaa!"

"Shut up!"

What seemed like years – but was only a few painful seconds later – the Watertribe siblings were deposited on a solid ice flow. Sokka staggered around, then fell, groaning, but his sister stared in awe at something beyond them. Slowly, she walked towards it to investigate, only to find that Sokka had leapt in front of her. "Katara, don't go _near_ that thing. Have you ever seen an iceberg looking like that?"

Indeed, it was an unusual iceberg. It was almost like a huge sculpture, perfectly round, the ice pulled in flowing strips around the center. As they looked up at it, identical pictures of awe on their faces, Katara realized something–

"Sokka, is there someone _in _there?" She began to rush towards it again, to inspect the strange shadows that seemed to resemble a boy, but Sokka again blocked her path.

"Katara, it could be dangerous! I forbid you to go any closer!"

With an eye roll (_oh please_), Katara marched by, grabbing the boomerang from Sokka's belt as she passed. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Sokka. Stop being such a worry-walrus."

She perched herself on the edge of the strange ice formation and peered closer. "Yup, I think that's a boy." A second later – to Sokka's horror – she raised the boomerang and prepared to bring it down on the ice.

"Katara, _no_-!"

_Crash_.

A huge, ear-splitting crack split through the quiet air. A second later, Sokka and Katara were gazing up at a huge column of glowing light, soaring up in to the heavens. It flickered over their faces, casting an unearthly blue glow over upturned heads. The beam of light seemed to last forever, stretching on and on as far up as the eye could see.

It finally dissipated.

"Well, that was strange. C'mon, Katara, let's go – _what are you doing get away from him!_" Sokka, after turning to find their canoe, was jerked back with a shock of brotherly concern. Katara was making her way over _towards_ the boy (now he saw that there was boy that the light had deposited out of the now-shattered iceberg). The strange boy. The boy who he had never met. The one who looked – "Katara, if he's dead, I swear to Tui you're going to wash my socks again until some sort of purification ceremony, because that would be _so _gross if you _touched him_, and then got…_dead_ germs all over them…"

The waterbender staunchly ignored her brother's warnings with the ease that came from long hours of practice. Gently, she knelt down besides the strange boy and patted his forehead. When that did nothing to revive him, she grabbed his shoulders and studied him.

It was painfully obvious he wasn't from the South Pole. His skin was too fair, his hair too dark. It was cut funnily, too – long and shaggy – and his red and black clothing marked him as anything but Watertribe. Not to mention his scar. The most defining feature on his face, it covered all of his left eye, traveling over his ear and up pat his hairline. No one had scars like that down here. It was from fire, and the only scars Watertribesmen had were those from boomerangs and cold.

Then the eyes cracked open.

"Hey." Katara's voice was soft.

The eyes were gold, trying to take in everything in his surroundings, with the air of one who doesn't quite know where they are. When they came to rest on Katara, she pinked a little, and Sokka suddenly appeared over her, clearing his throat.

When the boy from the iceberg spoke, his voice was raspy, as if he didn't use it enough. "Um…do I know…where am I?" He slowly pulled himself up the ice and, to Sokka's everlasting relief, a bit away from Katara. She seemed to be making him uncomfortable, what with her putting her face in rather close proximity to his own. Unfortunately, he continued staring at her face, which made Sokka finally push between them.

"I don't know who you are, but – " Shock and horror , then anger, dawned at a new idea. "Hey, buddy, if you're some Air Empire spy, you'd better clear out _right now!_" The spear poked the boy's chest.

"Ow." He owlishly blinked at Sokka with an expression of vague uncertainty and even a little fear.

Sokka gave a ever-suffering sigh and jabbed the boy again. "Hey." He glanced at Katara – "Do you suppose he's slow?" – then back at the boy. He spoke in a very deliberate tone, the way one might talk to a small child. "Are. You. An. Air. Empire. Spy."

This seemed to get through. The boy pulled himself up, apparently a bit affronted. "No! I'm not Air Empire – do I look Air Empire? I'm _Fire Nation_, dumbass."

Sokka was too busy being insulted, but Katara inspected his cloths. They were pretty obviously Fire Nation – not only were they ragged and soaked, they were in shades of red and dark brown. They were also made for a warmer climate than the South Pole – indeed, the boy was shivering and his lips were turning blue. Katara poked her brother, and they regarded the boy for a while, until even Katara was feeling the cold wind on her neck.

"Sokka, come on. We have to – wait, what's your name?"

They both looked at him rather expectantly.

His one eye widened a bit, then he shrugged. "Zuko."

Katara smiled. "Hello, Zuko. I'm Katara, and this fish-brain is my brother, Sokka. We're going to bring you back to the village now, so you can dry off and warm up – you know, all that stuff. Then, I guess you can meet Gran Gran."

Sokka had other ideas, though – "Hey! If you're not an airbender, how did you get here, anyway?"

Zuko looked around, still obviously a bit disoriented, then scrambled up the side of the snow bank. Sokka and Katara followed, respectively skeptical and eager. With a less-than-grand gesture, the Fire Nation boy pointed at a few scraps of wood. "I guess my boat didn't make it through the iceberg."

"I guess not."

Katara laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. He was freezing. "Come on. Let's get you back to the village."

* * *

A/N: Yay! Review! Thank you so much, AnnaAza!

So this is a preliminary first chapter to a Zutara AU where Aang faced Sozin, defeated him, and founded the Air Empire to keep peace. Now, Avatar Zuko is here to save the day!

Any feedback?


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